Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Super Family Computer System (Super Famicom)/Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)

An American SNES

Type:

Console

Release date:

1990

Discontinued:

1999-2003

Operating system:

None

CPU:

Ricoh 5A22

Memory:

128 KB RAM

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (also known as the Super NES, SNES or Super Nintendo) is a 16-bit video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Australasia (Oceania), and South America in 1993. In Japan, the system is called the Super Famicom (スーパーファミコン Sūpā Famikon?, officially adopting the abbreviated name of its predecessor, the Family Computer), or SFC for short.

Contents

Nintendo quickly began development of the Super Famicom shortly after noticing the progresive domain of the [Sega Genesis] on the video-game market.
Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi once again put Masayuki Uemura in charge of creating the system. The Super Famicom would be 16-bit, just as they had originally wanted for the Famicom, but due to the high prices of such components at the time of making the Famicom, almost a decade before, it had to be 8-bit. But now, during the design of the Super Famicom, the prices had fallen much lower and could now be used in the console while still keeping production costs down.
The Super Famicom was released on the 21st November 1990 in Japan, and basically took over the market (about 80% of the market was eventually taken by the Super Famicom after it had been established). A shortage of supplies meant that the Super Famicom's US release would be delayed one year.
Although the Super NES took time to catch up with the well-established Genesis, it finally made it. This is largely due to the exclusive games made for the SNES, considered some of the best games ever made. SNES was released in the UK in April 1992 for £150 and a few weeks later in Germany.
Nintendo continued to use chip enhanced cartridges to maintain the SNES's popularity. Some of the chips included the SuperFX, SuperFX 2, DSP1, DSP2, SA-1, Cx4 (used in Mega Man X2 & X3), SDD1, and lord knows what else. Even as 32-bit consoles began to surface, Nintendo continued to surprise gamers. In 1994, Nintendo teamed with a 3rd party developer named RARE. Together both companies produced Donkey Kong Country which used fully rendered graphics. The game looked as good as first generation 32-bit titles and kept the SNES selling even in a 32-bit generation.
In 1997 Nintendo released a new design SNES which was smaller and lighter. It sold for US$99.99 and was brought out just to make a few last sales to anyone still interested in 16-bit games during this time of 32-bit consoles. The RF output and expansion ports are not present on this version and so hopes of a SNES-CD completely died.

Some of the most popular games for the platform were Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country (both of were bundle games with the console), Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the past, Super Metroid and Chrono Trigger.

As part of the overall plan for the SNES, rather than include an expensive CPU that would still become obsolete in a few years, the hardware designers made it easy to interface special coprocessor chips to the console via cartridges. Some of the most well known were the Super FX Chip (used in Star Fox and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island) and the Cx4 (used in Mega Man X2 and Mega Man X3). The only Valis game released for this system didn't use any special chip.

Some of the most well known games for the SNES are: Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Donkey Kong Country, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid and Chrono Trigger.

As part of the overall plan for the SNES, rather than include an expensive CPU that would still become obsolete in a few years, the hardware designers made it easy to interface special coprocessor chips to the console via cartridges. This is most often characterized by 16 additional pins on the cartridge card edge.

Some of the most famous chips for the SNES were the Super FX Chip (used in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and Star Fox) and the Cx4 (used in Mega Man X2 and Mega Man X3).

Super Valis IV is the first Valis game released for a Nintendo console since the Famicom version of the first game.

After Super Valis IV, all of Telenet's SNES releases remained Japanese-exclusive due to Sega's purchase of Renovation Products, Telenet Japan's American subsidiary, making all of their American releases exclusive for the Genesis.